The nearly 84-year-old Fort Steuben Bridge, once the primary link between Weirton and Steubenville, went down in a blaze of glory this morning.

Just before 7:15 a.m., the Joseph B. Fay Co. detonated nearly 500 explosive charges, sending a fireball streaking from Ohio to West Virginia, followed by a bigger one, dropping the 1,255-foot truss into the Ohio River and sending the bridge’s two towers falling toward their opposing river banks.